National political reporter

At the end of every year politicians observe a tradition as dear to them as Christmas. While Australians binge on food, drink and sunshine, federal ministers use the cover of the holidays to dump unfavourable news on a presumably uninterested public.

This season was no different. Contentious reports have been released, mines approved, insurance premiums raised and funding cancelled.

Abbott government ministers Greg Hunt, Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison have all seemingly partaken in the holiday dump.

Early Christmas: Clive Palmer. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

"It's practically un-Australian not to do this," said marketer and former Liberal Party consultant Toby Ralph.

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"The disgrace won't make the front page, but will find good company at the back of the paper with like-minded others in the public eye trying to bury bodies without getting noticed."

But the tactic can backfire. When, two days before Christmas, Mr Dutton, the Health Minister, announced the biggest increase in health insurance premiums in nearly a decade, news-starved journalists jumped on the story. With little serious news about, the damaging announcement – a 6.2 per cent average annual increase in insurance premiums – made the front page of national newspapers.

A spokesman for the minister said the pre-Christmas announcement was "hardly an attempt to minimise media or public attention", but rather the first opportunity for the government to make the decision public after having informed the insurers.

Kevin Rudd's former media adviser, Lachlan Harris, said the Christmas break presented a "great opportunity" for politicians to bury bad news, but there was a "balancing act".

The trick to an effective holiday dump, he said, was to dispose of news negative enough to be worth burying but not so negative that the story will "spiral out of control".

By Mr Harris' formula, several government ministers appear to have struck the sweet spot these holidays, with their announcements receiving minimal scrutiny.

Later on the same pre-Christmas Friday, Mr Hunt deposited more information that would normally receive extensive media coverage.

As Fairfax Media's environment editor Peter Hannam reported in a story on December 21: “Christmas has come early for mining billionaire and newly minted MP Clive Palmer, with the federal government approving his monster China First coalmine in Queensland's Galilee Basin.”

The Friday-before-Christmas timing had nothing to do with minimising scrutiny, Mr Hunt's spokesman said.

The day before Mr Hunt's announcements, The Australian reported that Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion had told the peak aboriginal body – National Congress of Australia's First Peoples – that it should prepare to survive without $15 million funding promised by Labor.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has also made good use of the Christmas break, doing away with his weekly, often hostile, press conferences.

The Friday before Christmas, Mr Morrison told journalists that would be his last question and answer session for the year and he would be issuing written statements instead.

Journalists had assumed this was a holiday arrangement, but the following week the Immigration Minister's office insisted Mr Morrison was not on leave and would not say when or whether the briefings would resume.

Politicians who have missed the chance for a holiday dump should not fret. Mr Ralph reckons the year will offer plenty of other opportunities for the opportunistic politician.

"A global disaster is a free kick for people that need to bury scandals," Mr Ralph said.